The Human Heart

Outside the small chapel, a crowd had already gathered. A suddenly spreading piece of news had shaken everyone. Nobles and soldiers alike were astonished. Even those who had vaguely sensed some of the truth beforehand were stunned after learning the details—

In order to eliminate the nobles who had once opposed him, frame Duke Gawain Cecil, secure his Royal Authority, and prevent the Cecil Family from returning to the kingdom's center of power, the king had personally orchestrated that horrifying massacre on Raven Plateau.

This was not a rumor. There was solid evidence and testimony—a secret letter that should have been destroyed had been uncovered, and several palace attendants unwilling to remain silent had stepped forward to testify to the king's crimes. Outside the small chapel, the portly Count Balin furiously waved a letter in his hand. "This was a conspiracy! The king deceived Duke Cecil with false information, making the duke believe Raven Plateau had been occupied by monsters! The king killed more than a hundred nobles and their knights just because those people had once opposed him!!"

The knights around the chapel stirred, and the commotion gradually turned into increasingly loud shouting. Some palace nobles, still reeling from shock and lingering fear, soon joined the wave of condemnation. Only a handful in the crowd maintained an eerie silence. A small number of nobles looked utterly bewildered, as if they had suddenly lost their footing, as if they could no longer understand where exactly this world had gone wrong.

More people were incited, and the fury of betrayal began spreading through the crowd.

"The king we supported turned out to be a tyrant?!"

"If he can kill a hundred nobles who oppose him today, he can kill us tomorrow!!"

"He was crowned atop a sea of blood! We should